FCTA targets N10b IGR

Determined to increase its internally generated revenue, the Abuja Metropolitan Management Council (AMMC) has launched an online payment portal to enhance revenue collection, and ensure a coordinated and convenient revenue accounting system.

When operational, the scheme, the council stated, would enable it generate as much as N10 billion revenue in 2013 as well as block leakages in the payment and collection of utility bills in the Federal Capital Territory.

The AMMC coordinator, Mr. Rueben Okoya, an architect, who presented the online payment portal to journalists in Abuja, explained that with the payment scheme, customers would not need to go to bank and queue endlessly.

He stated that the Easy pay scheme as it would be known, would also plug revenue loss and make it easy for the public to pay their utility bills and charges into its coffers right from their sitting room.

According to him, payment could be made from the Automated Teller Machines, dedicated point of sale terminals, mobile payment through cell phones, scratch cards, E-kiosk and online payment through the AMMC website www.ammc.gov.ng.

Okoya described the scheme as a computer-based multi-bank electronic payment solution designed for secure commercial transaction between the AMMC and its customers using the interswitch platform.

H said: “the AMMC easy pay scheme is an online payment system introduced by the council to aid collection of various utility bills and charges; it is an alternative to the manual means of payment and offers a more convenient and faster way of clearing bills.”

On the security of customer information and integrity of the system, the coordinator assured customers that the programme was designed in accordance with global standards, adding that clients’ financial information was safe as long as they observe basic Internet security whenever they are online.